airbrushextreme

I use # 2 split rings and #4 vmc short shanks and the baits suspend right fine if you are having trouble try wrapping the front hook with a little fly tiers lead wire and put heat shrink over it I have been doing this to some of the k/o's as well as the true vision 110 high floater to make it suspend just because you cant get a few colors in the regular 110 right now

I have went swimming for a couple megabass crankbaits and have pulled up brushpiles to get several jerkbaits of various brands back I too cherish a certain color orbit 80 and a zip baits speed kid they stay in a locked waterproof storage box in the boat but I treat all of my japanese baits like fine jewelry they get more and better attention than my wife

the guys who think they are getting the real thing or getting away with paying a whole lot less for knockoffs when they buy knockoffs are usually the guys who are too tight to spend a little extra money and buy the real thing dont realize knockoffs may look exact in appearance but they dont fish the same I had a customer send me the first 110 knockoffs I ever seen about 2 years ago he gave me 20 to paint and 20 to keep for myself he also sent me 35 true 110's of odd and good colors still in the hard plastic box to paint and 10 true 110's for me to keep in colors I requested out of the 20 knockoffs I kept for myself 4 were really good the others a rogue or husky jerk would work as good as if not better I spent several thousand over the last couple years on some of the best japanese baits out there lucky craft megabass zipbait evergreen tiemco just to name a few I have had amateurs/nonboaters fish with me in several tournaments and say I will catch them with this such and such bait and by the middle of the day they are saying what is that bait called do you think the local tackle shop has any and a little later could I borrow one of those and my answer is always but you have to pay for it if you lose it

I use crackle finish quite often on crawfish and some otherslike black over firetiger etc I dont use regular crackle medium however I use elmers white glue it will give you better consistency and less timespent making sure the bait is coated correctly

I use either fluorescent yellow or neon yellow tgic special effects from columbia coatings the neon yellow does a great job for chartreuse craw type colors the fluorescent yellow does the same exact color on the SOB spinnerbait pictured above their translucent candy yellow does the same type color as their clown and money colors over a gold blade I put some time and money into trying most of the colors from columbia and have found nothing but great product from them in all their colors and they are a commercial/military grade powder paint so it wont chip off and will be harder than your pro tech ever could I have some jig heads that have been repetitively beat into docks and riprap that still have all the paint on them even though they have dents gouges and dings in them

I broke the two triple trouts saltwater striper fishing they had already been abused pretty bad from a few years of bass fishing and the stripers done the rest

it is a poor excuse for a BBZ but it is somewhere to start it does notswim the same and 3 of the 5 I bought were weighted lopsided and didnt swim at all I make my own triple trouts I took 2 broken ones and made a mold for them I put a feather tail on it and it works great

I use a simple stencil I used a piece of stencil material and copied a rapala DT series craw outline then cut it out 1/16 wide this gives you a basic craw outline what you do after you outline the craw marks is what makes the bait

I like VMC the short shank rapala and the spark point are my favorites they dont bend easy and very seldom lose fish they run $4.99-8.99 for a 25 pack

I have heat set with the netting on if there is any paint buildup on the netting it will pull your paint job apart I use a hairdryer briefly to aid in drying remove the netting then heat set my paint if necessary

I tried that type holo scales also it looks great I place my scales in a scale back pattern like LC does I settled for the solid nonscaled hologram tape instead the rhombus holepunch is an AC Moore store brand try gold copper or red scales on a golden orange bait it is phenomenal pearl scales on a gold bait won me money lake Okeechobee last year and is a potomac river staple purple scales on a tablerock shad blue scales on a parrot I done a shad rap with chart top scales and pearl lower scales over a simple smokey joe type color think outside the box sometimes

I have colored it with blade dye and sharpies

the biots look just like the bristles in that bait but they are much easier to use and replace I have several true bullshads and just modified what I already had the biots are the thick wingfeathers 1 piece makes several tails